The present invention relates to an improved trash separation mechanism for mechanical harvesters such as tomato harvesters. More particularly, this invention relates to an improved trash separator mechanism for use with a rear cross-conveyor assembly of a tomato harvester and the like.
In harvesters such as tomato harvesters, the plants are severed at their roots, are picked up and elevated and carried to a separating device which separates the fruit from the stems and leaves, typically by oscillatory and vibratory action resulting in severance of the fruit from the vines. The separated fruit typically drops to a collecting conveyor below the separating device.
In certain harvesters, for example, the tomato harvester described in the assignee's U.S. Pat. No. 3,986,561, the collecting conveyor carries the fruit to the rear of the harvester and deposits it on a pair of rear cross-conveyors. These cross-conveyors, in turn, carry the fruit out to the sides and deposit the fruit onto forwardly moving conveyors leading to the sorting operation.
At the point where the collecting conveyor deposits the fruit onto the rear cross-conveyors, a forced-air blower system has been found to be desirable to blow the leaves and other light vegetative and mineral matter away from the heavier fruit. One such blower system is described in the assignee's U.S. Pat. No. 3,455,448. The nozzle of such a blower is generally disposed adjacently below the collecting conveyor and aimed to blow across the rear cross-conveyors.
A problem encountered with this type of trash separation device has been the unwanted accumulation of trash on the far side of the cross-conveyors, despite the provision of fixed deflection structures for guiding the trash from the cross-conveyors to the ground. Particularly offensive have been small vines and weeds that have become entangled in the rear cross-conveyor assembly and adjacent fixed frame structure and have thereupon collected other trash until the trash separation system at the rear cross-conveyor has lost its efficiency and in some extreme instances, even its utility.
The present invention solves this problem by providing a rearwardly rotating roller adjacently behind the rear cross-conveyors. The roller constantly rotates and urges trash thereon away from the cross-conveyors and to the ground. In addition, preferably a series of moving resilient fingers depend downwardly from a position above the roller. These fingers move just above the roller so as to engage and agitate the trash which might otherwise accumulate on the roller. The agitation produced thereby precludes a buildup of trash upon the roller and enables the roller to move the trash rearwardly away from the rear cross-conveyors to achieve an improved trash separation from the tomatoes.
Other objects, advantages and features of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment presented in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.